CMCI Studio: Three Months
And I’m back again for another iteration of what I have learned in the last month CU Boulder CMCI Studio Masters Program. November has been a month of varied undulations as the first semester begins to wrap up. The idea that we are nearly finished with our first semester is tough to wrap my mind around, simply because it is difficult to think about all we have learned in this time. Some of the new knowledge at this point feels like I’ve known it forever and other concepts are still being processed in my mind, especially as final projects come to a close next week. I’ll go through each class and summarize what we’ve been up to and how we’re bringing this semester to an end.
Critical Making Studio: Final Projects are in full swing over here in Critical Making Studio as each student has set out to solve some kind of project. I wanted to do a project that may have future implications on a career in interior design or furniture design so I sought out to make a high end Holiday Decor Kit. Consumers can be inundated with the plethora of variety of holiday decor each year, making the process of selecting carefully and thoughtfully difficult. This is where my Holiday Decor Kit comes in handy because it is a one stop shop where users can select a variety of items and have it all shipped to their doorstep. For this projects purposes (click here for the project proposal) I designed a number of items including laser cut ornaments, wood bead garland and ornaments, a candle, tree figurines, and a tree topper. The idea eventually (if I brought this to fruition) would be to source the items from other small makers to support small and local businesses. All of the items are made with sustainability in mind and eco-friendly materials, while holding a timeless and upscale look throughout.
The process in bringing this project about has had its own ups and downs, with some of the main setbacks being my lack of knowledge or experience of how to make these items. It has been a good learning experience to see what I did for this project and how I could make it better next time. I have worked with some very nice people at the CU Idea Forge to help with the machine work and laser cutting, and I have learned the process for how to design pieces for production in those manners. This project began with formulating ideas of various items to include, how to create those items, and asking for lots of help along the way. I am eager to bring it all together this week to style and photograph for the website mockups and create the branded design system. My hope in this project is to create a product that puts the holiday shopper at ease, knowing that the products they choose for their own box will last a lifetime and support other small businesses. We’ll see if this idea ends up going somewhere!
RE Studio: Research, research, and more research. Research is about all we have done in the last month for RE Studio! Our topics have varied quite a bit from the beauty industry, environmentally friendly products, technology, mental health, and the effects that COVID-19 have had on all of that. Our group has done multiple affinity maps, read and watched secondary research of endless articles and videos, conducted interviews, polls, and a survey we finally landed on our topic. I was amazed as we went through this extensive process at how my group members and I would ask a wide range of different people similar questions and we generally came back with similar feedback and responses.
The topic we landed on is mental/physical health and its relationship to technology, especially as a result of increased technology use with COVID-19. Our problem statement we came up with from our research so far is “I am a young professional struggling with mental and physical health difficulties as a result of my technology use, but I am unable to change my current habits/situation because I have to use technology for my remote work and to stay in contact with loved ones, which makes me feel helpless and sad.” At this point, we are conducting interviews and a survey to see if we can narrow down our audience and determine if there is more than one user persona to then ideate solutions from. It has been an exercise of patience to remain in the problem space for this many weeks, but going through this research process is helping us to be assured that the space we are trying to solve in is actually a legitimate problem space. I am eager to see where this problem space will take us, as I have seen the extensive effects of technology overuse and how it can cause (directly or indirectly) to mental and physical health ailments. I am hoping that the extended Winter break will lend itself to some natural ideation and solutions!
Design Leadership: I came into this class not exactly knowing what to expect (possibly because there wasn’t a full schedule in our syllabus), but my goodness this class was a whirlwind in many ways. At times it felt a bit scattered and somewhat disorganized, but reflecting back on the semester makes all of what seemed like randomness make much more sense. The class began with an evaluation of what makes an effective leader. From there we did all kinds of exercises, experiences, and activities that centered on productivity, balance, and mental stability in difficult situations. This all fed into the central idea that in order to be an effective leader, one must be at peace with their self and then that will feed into all daily interactions, both pleasant and difficult. This class stretched me in many ways, helping me to deal with past work experiences that have affected me negatively over the last few years, to understand myself and how I work best, to see how my mind is subconsciously working amidst difficult conversations and compare how I have poorly acted in the past in order to make improvements in the future. The focus on self and what is going on inside became exhausting for me, but it will prove to be useful as we seek to look externally next semester.
Experience Design: As I reflect on this semester, I am tempted to say that this class has taught me the most new things of all the classes. There is some truth to that statement, but there is also a caveat. While I have learned so much about many things, tools, topics, etc this semester, I was at least generally aware of some of the concepts taught in my other three classes. Whereas in Experience Design, this class brought about some of the newest and “I have never heard of or even thought of that before” types of concepts. For instance, I had no idea the extensive research process that goes into creating effective UX design. Scratching the surface of coding and how that influences UX design blew my mind too! And I am excited to learn more about the ethics of technology this next week in class because I think it is also incredibly relevant to our society today, and also plays a role in the problem space we are researching for RE Studio. Emily, Andrew, and Karen maintained a steady pace throughout the semester and each of the projects were challenging but attainable at the same time.
It would take me a very long time to list out each and every new thing that I have learned in this program. But overall, I am enjoying the learning process again, trying new things, taking risks, and receiving feedback for how to improve the process next time. I can already see how valuable this education is, and I am thankful that I stumbled across this program via a google search over a year ago. Having learned so much already, I cannot imagine all the knowledge I will have by the end of this program and that makes me all the more excited for where I will end up in my career. I can already tell that I feel more knowledgeable, confident, and motivated when I think about the opportunities on my horizon. Thank you CMCI Studio for giving me the tools, resources, and everything else that I will need to succeed.
